I should really make an effort to blog more often here. I do try, but I tend to be in a perpetual state of behindness where I’d rather get my edits done over updating my blog.
But I digress.
In an effort to blog more I thought I’d start doing mini-blogs on various things. We will see how this goes.
I often have people come up to me and ask how I started, how long I’ve been doing this for etc. It’s not an easy answer. I didn’t just pick up a camera one day and decide I was a photographer. It’s been a long process of trial and error and accidental opportunities.
I’ve been doing photography off and on for about 12 years and consistently for the last six. (I found it a natural compliment to my years training as painter.) I also have a perfectionist streak and refused to consider myself a photographer until I was at a calibre where I would purchase my work. I can’t expect someone to hire me if I wouldn’t purchase what I’m producing! I actually built my first camera out of a Nestea container and a pop can. You can make a camera out of whole rooms if you have the know how – which isn’t difficult. I still have my Nestea can photos as well. The experience was great. It meant that my entire background and my introduction to photography was as traditional as possible. I pride myself on having this background as it isn’t a common one, but it is part of the history of photography that seems to be forgotten. It’s not always about the image. Understanding the process of your image allows you more control when creating one.
The one thing about building your own is that you really learn to understand your camera. Which, thanks to automatic settings, also seems to be a lost art. (That is a conversation not for a blog though!)
When I turned my focus from painting to photography it was because the images in my head were easier to create with a camera rather than a paintbrush. The main focus of my body of work (up until recently) was conceptual, editorial style images. I like to tell stories with my photos and most of the time I did it through self-portraiture which ended up turning into a study on self-portraiture without narcissism. In fact, this is the first photo that I took using a digital SLR (rather than 35 mm):
When I graduated from University I was armed with a BFA and landed in Fort McMurray where a job at a newspaper threw me into a world I had never considered. It has been such a blast to be a photojournalist. I love the opportunities and the fast paced environment. I think that because of my desire to tell a story, it has been a good fit. It was an easy transition, although I’m told it isn’t an easy profession. Taking a portrait of someone is very different from capturing the news. (Though I love doing both.)
I’ve had opportunities to shoot everything from babies and weddings to the Royal Couple and fashion editorials and couldn’t think of a better place I want to be.
So there’s a very brief history of my start and progress. I’m always trying to push myself further so we’ll see how a blog like this can change over time!
1 comment